The invention is based on a valve as generically defined hereinafter. German Offenlegungsschrift No. 35 01 973 discloses a valve having the disadvantage that despite reducing the size of the surfaces of the armature and stop that strike one another, a substantial reduction in the armature mass is still unattainable, and upon armature actuation a large surface area must be moved counter to the fluid, resulting in undesirable delays in the closing or opening movement of the valve.
This application is an improvement of U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,822, granted Mar. 29, 1988, which is assigned to the assignee of this application.